Face It: Free Trade Is Last Thing Real Americans Need

Want to solve economic inequality? Stop liberalizing trade. Between the lines of President Obama’s fifth State of the Union lies the real reason behind job loss and stagnant wages for all but the top 1% Americans -- the nation’s trade deficit, among others.

The Federal Reserve, with the unemployment rate having finally fallen below 7%, contends the nation’s economy in recovery when it’s not nearly out of the woods for most of us, argues former Reagan administration official Clyde Prestowitz in a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed. 

But that statistic one of six used by Uncle Sam, shows just a glimpse of a bigger more accurate picture in that it only measures the percentage of unemployed Americans still looking for employment not those who‘ve thrown their hands up in desperation or are working part-time. If they’re included, the rate goes up to 13%, which is still below 2010’s 17% but above 2007’s 8%.

In essence, the “recovery” our leaders speak of has gone to America’s wealthiest with the rest of us still entrenched in the Great Recession. In addition, the nation’s trade deficit continues to remain in negative territory.

All the more reason not to ratify yet another free trade treaty that is likely to hurt the lower 99% for the benefit of the top 1%. 

Tell your congressional representatives to vote against fast-track authority for Obama to ram the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact into reality. 

Read it: lat.ms/1lnYYLf.